THE ROCK GARDEN, HARTLEY GRANoh 



i, tltncit/KUi. 



ROCK, WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



By H. H. THOMAS 



THOUGHTS of one invariably con- 

 jure up pictures of the others ; 

 the rock garden is incomplete 

 without its pond, pool or rivulet, and 

 the water garden, although not want- 

 ing in intrinsic charm, gains in pictur- 

 esqueness if here and there its ripples 

 wash bold, rock-studded shore. The 

 rock garden is the most difficult of 

 all gardens to make. Unless one works 

 in the closest touch with Nature, and 

 takes for model one or more of her 

 own exquisite examples, the natural 

 will inevitably be subordinate to the 

 artificial, and when the work is com- 



plete it may be found that instead of a 

 rock garden one has made merely a 

 rockery. I write slightingly of a rockery, 

 and I think with good reason, since there 

 is rarely an excuse for its existence ; 

 in other words a rock garden might well 

 have been made instead. The making 

 and planting of a rock garden might 

 be included among the fine arts, but the 

 buikling of a rockery is a work that 

 demands no skill, no taste, and little 

 knowledge of the ways of plants. 

 The rockery is a jumble of stones or 

 clinkers or bricks and soil and j^lants ; 

 there is no good reason for the presence 



275 



